


Operation All-Nighter

by predilection



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers R.P.M.
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-30
Updated: 2013-04-30
Packaged: 2017-12-09 23:51:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/779401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/predilection/pseuds/predilection
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This fic is a companion piece to episode 7, "Ranger Red". Why <i>was</i> Ziggy sleeping face down in a bowl of cereal during their briefing?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Operation All-Nighter

When Dr. K informed Ziggy that she wasn't planning to sleep until she figured out why the Croc Carrier Zord had malfunctioned, Ziggy realized two things almost simultaneously. The first thing was that she had been working non-stop for what he was pretty sure was coming up to at least forty-eight hours without sleep. The second thing was that he had no idea _where_ Dr. K slept.

He recalled the previous night, when he had gotten out of bed at three in the morning in search of a snack, and despite the hour, Dr. K had been sitting at her workstation, her fingers racing across her keyboard. She had still been at her workstation when he had woken up in the morning, and he hadn't seen her leave for any length of time since. 

"Did you require something?" she asked, without so much as glancing up at him. He was hovering around her workstation again, partially because he was bored, and partially because he considered her a friend. Even if she didn't feel the same way about him, he was determined to spend time with her and, sometimes, distract her from her seemingly never-ending workload because that's what friends did for each other.

He leaned against the corner of her workstation and watched her through the space between two of her monitors. "When was the last time you slept?" he asked.

She remained focused on her computer screen when she replied, "I am attempting to safely boost the energy levels of the Croc Carrier Zord. Unless you understand the core principles of energy conversion involved in the construction an overthruster core reactor, you are wasting my time."

Dr. K always seemed to be telling him that he was wasting her time, and Ziggy did what he always did when she told him that: he ignored her. He was getting a better handle on when she actually meant what she said, and when she was using words to try and keep people at a distance, something he had noticed she was very, very good at.

"I don't think pulling another all-nighter is such a good idea, doc," he pointed out. She glared at him. "I know you're some kind of super scientist and all, but may I remind you that like most human beings, you would function better with sleep." He knew how important the need for sleep was from personal experience, too. If he didn't get at least eight hours of sleep, he usually ended up dozing off and taking naps at the most inopportune times. 

"May I remind you," she retorted, "that if Venjix's attack bot decides to reek havoc on Corinth, it will be necessary to have the Croc Carrier Zord fully operational."

He hated to admit it, but Dr. K had a point: no one else would be able to get the new zord online. But that wasn't to say her logic was without its flaws. Sleep wasn't something she could put off forever, and he knew that there was more than a slight chance that her mistake earlier was because she hadn't slept in two days.

It was only when he yawned that he realized how tired he was.

"Ranger Series Green," she said a moment later, still not bothering to look up from her work.

"Ziggy," he told her for the hundredth time. "My name is Ziggy."

She continued as if he hadn't spoken, which was something else she was very, very good at. "The last thing I need at the moment are your irksome distractions." 

"Fine," he said. He thought about her working through the entire night and came to a decision. He walked across the room and sat down with his back against the wall under the main set of briefing monitors.

She stopped typing and frowned at him. "What are you doing?" she asked, and Ziggy briefly relished in his ability to surprise her.

"I'm keeping you company," he replied, raising his hands behind his head and making himself comfortable against the wall.

"I do not desire or require your company," she informed him curtly.

"Well," he countered, "you should have thought of that before you decided staying up all night was a good idea." 

He silently dared her to demand that he go to bed because it would mean her admission that sleep was necessary for all human beings -- herself included -- but she ignored him and silently resumed her work.

* 

Two hours into "Operation All-Nighter", Ziggy was bored out of his mind, and it was taking most of his willpower not to fall asleep. He was continually torn between letting Dr. K do her job and asking her questions to keep himself awake, but the last five questions he had asked had received increasingly harsh responses.

Eventually, he stood up and started to pace, mostly because his legs were tingling from having sat in one position for too long. He was tempted to peer over her shoulder and ask her what she was doing, but he was pretty sure that would give her enough cause to do more than snap at him.

His stomach growled.

She rolled her eyes, clearly irritated.

He was hungry. He hadn't eaten since dinner and that was -- he checked his morpher -- approximately six hours ago. He had no idea when he last saw Dr. K in the kitchen. He knew it had been awhile.

"Hey, doc," he asked, "when was the last time you ate?"

"Venturing elsewhere to prepare an intake of adequate nutritional value would be an inefficient use of my time at the moment," she replied curtly.

He was tempted to point out that her efficiency was probably decreasing because she was hungry as well as tired. Instead, he wandered over to the kitchen and rummaged through the fridge until he found a tupperwear containing the leftover pasta Scott had made two days ago. He reheated two portions: one for himself and one for her.

He balanced two trays, one in each hand, back to the control room and held one out to her in offering. 

"I neither asked, nor do I require--" she started and Ziggy cut her off, predicting her words and not really wanting to hear them.

"Yeah, you didn't, but here's a hot meal, possibly the first you've had all day."

He had expected her to at least accept it, but instead she resolutely ignored the tray and his presence. He sighed and slid the tray onto her desk. "I'll just leave this here then." 

Taking his own tray in both of his hands, he turned and sat back down in the spot he had claimed earlier. As he munched on his portion of pesto penne, he studied her determined expression and thought about the way she did what she felt she needed to with more purpose than anyone he had even met. She had more drive than Scott, Dillon, Flynn and Summer and more perseverance than even Fresno Bob and his goons combined.

"You know, this is kinda nice," he said, breaking the silence that had settled in around them. "The two of us, hanging out and doing stuff."

Dr. K hesitated for a fraction of a second, and Ziggy wasn't sure if it was because his statement had caught her off guard or because she wanted to strangle him. 

"Oh yes," she replied in perfect deadpan. "We should do this again sometime."

For a moment, Ziggy felt elated, but then the biting sarcasm caught up with him and he returned his attention to his pasta.

*

Ziggy woke up some time later, his back and neck protesting at having to sleep on the hard floor. He sat up and stretched his sore muscles, and in the process, accidentally kicked his empty tray with his foot.

He was about to ask Dr. K how long he had been out when he looked up and realized she was no longer in the room. He hoped that it was because she had finished the overthruster thing and had gone to wherever it was she slept, and not just because she had found somewhere else to work. He tilted his head to the side to stretch out his neck muscles and grimaced. It would have been nice if she hadn't left him sleeping on the floor, but he supposed it was his choice to claim a spot there in the first place.

He got to his feet and as he headed to the door, something caught his eye. At the corner of her work station was her dinner tray and the bowl at its center was empty. He approached it both cautiously and curiously, as if it was a mirage, but on closer inspection, it was the same bowl, only instead of penne there were only little bits of pesto stuck to its insides.

Ziggy stared at it for a long moment and then with a small smile on his face, he whispered, "You're welcome."

*

Ziggy jolted awake the next morning when Dr. K sent out an all-call ordering them to attend a briefing in ten minutes. Although he had some sleep, he was still exhausted and groggy. He had no idea how Dr. K did this everyday.

Rubbing his eyes, Ziggy decided that ten minutes was enough time to eat breakfast. He quickly changed into a pair of jeans, a green t-shirt and his ranger jacket, grabbed his morpher from his bedside table and headed to the kitchen. Flynn was already up and wished him a good morning from where he stood at the counter chopping up fruit for what looked like some sort of dessert.

Ziggy yawned and poured himself some cereal into a bowl. Then he stared down at it. He was too tired to eat. All he wanted to do was curl up in his bed and sleep.

"You know," Flynn said, coming up behind him, "the cereal thing works better when you actually pour milk into it."

Ziggy mumbled something tiredly, fighting and losing the battle to keep his eyes open.

Flynn shrugged and dropped a handful of fruit into Ziggy's bowl. He slapped Ziggy on the back affably and then left Ziggy to contemplate his breakfast. 

*

Ziggy had fallen asleep again. When he woke, he found himself with his face half buried in his cereal bowl. He lifted his head with a start only to discover Dillon sitting comfortably across from him reading a newspaper. 

"Dillon?" he asked groggily, realizing that he probably had been asleep for awhile.

Dillon glanced at him and then nonchalantly turned a page as if his best friend using his breakfast as a pillow was a perfectly normal occurrence for him.

"You have cereal on your--" Dillon cut himself off and gestured to the entire right side of his own face with a hand.

Ziggy touched his own cheek and was surprised when flakes of cereal immediately fell onto the table's surface. While Ziggy tried to brush all the flakes off of his face and out of his hair, Dillon put his newspaper down, apparently deeming Ziggy's frantic cereal removal dance worthy of his full, undivided attention. When Ziggy was reasonably sure he had gotten it all, Dillon appeared to be trying very hard not to laugh.

"What time is it?" he asked Dillon.

Dillon shrugged. "You missed lunch."

Ziggy realized he had been asleep a lot longer than he thought. Then he remembered why he had gotten up so early.

"I slept through the ranger meeting, didn't I?"

Dillon nodded, amusement still evident on his face. "Yep."

Ziggy winced. Dr. K wasn't going to like that at all. "Did I miss anything important?"

Dillon's slight smirk transformed into a slight frown. "Apparently, we need a flux overthruster core reactor to power our new zord. Scott apparently knows where to find one and took off an hour ago to locate it. The good doctor didn't give us any more information than that."

Ziggy realized that if Scott had run off to retrieve the overthruster thing, it meant that Dr. K hadn't completed the zord the night before, which meant she probably hadn't slept after all. He sighed and looked down at his cereal. Some of he flakes were soggy from being in contact with the fruit for so long.

"Why are you so tired, anyway?" Dillon asked him.

"I tried to stay up all night with Dr. K. I wanted to keep her company until she went to bed." 

"How did that plan work out for you?" 

"I slept for maybe two hours. As far as I can tell Dr. K didn't sleep at all."

Dillon sighed, and Ziggy sensed he was aggravated. "I don't know why we're expected to trust someone who can't be bothered to take care of herself. If she can't take care of herself, how can she take care of any of us?" Ziggy realized that Dillon must have been thinking about her mistake yesterday, and just like Ziggy had done the night before, Dillon was connecting it to her lack of self-preservation.

Ziggy walked over to the fridge and took out a carton of milk. Dillon raised an eyebrow at him when he poured milk over the remnants of his cereal that were still in the bowl, but as far as Ziggy was concerned, there was no reason to waste perfectly good cereal just because he had happened to have fallen asleep in it. 

He grabbed a spoon and before he dug in, he replied, "Maybe we should trust her because she doesn't sleep. I mean, she wants to defeat Venjix so badly that she doesn't do anything else but work, right?" He thought about her working all day and night and about how she did this everyday and every night. "We're lucky. When we're not out battling monsters, we have downtime. Time to relax and goof around. Dr. K doesn't let herself have that kind of luxury. She throws herself so deeply into her work that she forgets to do things like eating and sleeping. I think it's her determination to keep Corinth safe even at the cost to herself that makes her trustworthy, I guess. Sure, she's not always very nice to me sometimes, but I trust her."

Ziggy was surprised when Dillon smirked, looking as though he had just figured something out. He was obviously amused by _something_ , even if Ziggy couldn't figure out what it was.

"What?" Ziggy asked.

Dillon looked him straight in the eye. "You still have cereal in your hair," he replied, and when Ziggy quickly started to pat down his head again looking for more flakes, Dillon laughed.

*

By the time Scott was safely back inside the dome with the reactor, the new zord was fully operational and Venjix's latest attack bot was defeated, the sun was setting and Ziggy felt like he could use another nap.

He wandered into the control room with Dillon, Scott, Summer and Flynn expecting their customary debriefing. Instead, he was surprised to discover Dr. K asleep at her desk. Judging from the zord and attack bot information on the monitors, she had fallen asleep shortly after the battle had ended. She didn't look especially comfortable, but she was sleeping. 

They all shared a look of pleasant surprise. Dillon silently directed them out of the room with a pointed look and by tilting his head towards the door.

Once the door was closed behind them, Flynn laughed. "Well, I'll be damned. She does sleep."

Ziggy breathed a sigh of relief. She was sleeping. Finally. He thought about how she looked both peaceful and uncomfortable in her chair and frowned. At the very least, she needed a pillow or a blanket or something.

He silently excused himself from the group and headed towards his room. Before he reached the bottom of the stairs, Dillon caught up with him and caught his arm. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"I'm just going to get something," Ziggy explained.

Dillon just smiled the same, almost secret way he had earlier, and let Ziggy go. At some point he was really going to have to ask Dillon to let him in on the joke.

It took Ziggy a minute to find what he was looking for in his closet, and when he went back downstairs, his fellow rangers were no longer hanging around the garage. He was thankful since he knew that they would probably tease him for the green blanket he held folded under his arm.

Inside the control room Dr. K was still asleep in the same position she had been earlier. He carefully draped his blanket over her, making sure it fit snuggly around her neck and shoulders.

Ziggy was glad when she didn't stir. She deserved her rest.

*

When Ziggy woke up the next morning, he discovered a certain green blanket folded neatly on the desk across from his bed. He blinked at it for a minute. When he finally remembered what it was doing there and realized who must have returned it to him, he couldn't keep from smiling. He whispered, "You're welcome, doc."


End file.
